Vojislav Šešelj

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A poster for the 2004 presidential elections, for which Šešelj himself was not running, due to the fact that he was awaiting trial in The Hague. The slogan reads "wisdom, courage, trust".

Dr. Vojislav Šešelj (Serbian Cyrillic: Војислав Шешељ, pronounced /ˈvɔjislav ˈʃɛʃɛʎ/) (born 11 October 1954 in Sarajevo, People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian politician, and the founder and president of the Serbian Radical Party, the largest party in the Serbian parliament.

He was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity^[1] by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and is currently in The Hague awaiting trial. Šešelj was not handed over to United Nations personnel; he flew to The Hague by choice in February 2003.

As of November 2006 he is still awaiting trial in custody.

1 Biography
2 Trivia
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Vojislav Šešelj was born in Sarajevo (then SFR Yugoslavia) and grew up in the Herzegovinian village of Popovo Polje, near the city of Trebinje. He graduated in law at the University of Sarajevo, and soon obtained a doctorate in 1979. He taught political science there until 1984. That year the Communist authorities of Yugoslavia convicted him of “counter-revolutionary activities” and sentenced him to eight years in prison, although the Supreme Court commuted the sentence and he was released in 1986.

In 1989, Šešelj went to the United States where Momčilo Đujić, a Chetnik leader from World War II, granted him the title voivoda (Grand Duke) of the Chetniks.

Together with Vuk Drašković and Mirko Jović, Šešelj founded the anti-communist Serbian National Renewal (SNO) party in 1989. Šešelj later split off his faction into the Serbian Radical Party. During the early 1990s, Šešelj founded a number of paramilitary units, most notably the White Eagles, which committed some of the worst crimes against civilians and POWs during the Yugoslav Wars (including Vukovar and Voćin massacres).

His relations with President Slobodan Milošević’s Socialist Party was amicable during the first years of the Yugoslav Wars until September 1993, when he came into conflict with Milošević over Milošević's withdrawal of support for Republika Srpska in the Bosnian War. Šešelj also landed in jail in 1994 and 1995 for his opposition to Milošević.

In 1998, as violence in the Serbian province of Kosovo increased, Šešelj then joined Milošević’s national unity government. Šešelj objected to foreign media and human rights organizations acting in Yugoslavia, saying “If we cannot grab all their (NATO) planes, we can grab those within our reach, like various Helsinki committees, and Quisling groups” and “To those who we prove have participated in the service of foreign propaganda and those are the Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe, Radio France International, and the BBC radio service etc. If we find them in the moment of aggression they shouldn't expect anything good.”.^[2]

He became vice-president of the Serbian government between 1998 and 2000. During the Kosovo War and the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, he and his political party were willing to support Milošević, and after three months of bombardment they were the only party to vote against surrender to NATO forces.

In late February 2003 Šešelj surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on the indictment of "eight counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of violations of the laws or customs of war for his alleged participation in a joint criminal enterprise".^[3]

While in custody, he wrote a book titled „Kriminalac i ratni zločinac Havijer Solana” (“Punk and War Criminal Javier Solana”), a criticism of the NATO Secretary General (and the current High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Secretary-General of both the Council of the European Union and the Western European Union) who led the 1999 war in Kosovo.^[4]

On 2 December 2006, about 30,000 people marched in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, in support of Šešelj during his 28-day hunger strike in The Hague - after the ICTY denied him the right to choose his own defence counsel. Speaking at the rally, Radical Party secretary Aleksander Vučić said "He's not fighting just for his life. But he's fighting for all of us who are gathered here. Vojislav Šešelj is fighting for Serbia!"^[5]^[6] Šešelj ended the hunger strike on 8 December after being allowed to present his own defence.^[7]

Although in custody in The Hague, Šešelj has announced he will top his party's list of contenders for the January 2007 general election.^[8]

[edit] Trivia

Šešelj is a close ally of firebrand Russian nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Šešelj became a known orator despite the fact he has a rather pronounced rhotacism.

By the time of the rupture of the political relationship with Slobodan Milošević’s government over the prospect of peace negotiations with the Western World powers on Bosnian War, Milošević once defined Šešelj as “the personification of violence and primitivity”.^[9]

In 2005 Šešelj made Internet headlines when he was asked to read a letter which he earlier sent to the ICTY that stated his contempt for the court.^[10] The incident was an instant hit amongst the Serbian, Bosnian andCroatian speaking countries.^[11]